THE CHURCH. l6l

the Emperor at Constantinople the head of the
the Church was his willing tool, and the former
residence of the Czars was converted into the head-
quarters of Greek culture. But the Bogomile heresy
continued to make headway, and the hair-splitting
of Greek theologians rather increased than hindered
the growth of the schism. The Emperor Alexius I.
persecuted the heretics with fire and sword, with the
result that they threw themselves into the arms of
his barbarous enemies, preferring a pagan ally to a
Christian foe. The territorial jurisdiction of the
Church \vas, however, the same as under the old
Bulgarian Czars. The "golden bulls" of the
Emperor Basil enumerated no fewer than thirty
bishoprics of the Bulgarian community with six
hundred and eighty-five priests in their respective
dioceses, which included all Macedonia, parts of
Albania and Thessaly, Sofia, Vidin, Prisrend, and
even Belgrade, between them. In short, the network
of the Bulgarian hierarchy was, even under the Greek
Emperors, fully as widespread as the temporal
dominion of Simeon or Samuel had been. The
National Church was practically free, but it was a
free Church in an enslaved state.

The anarchy which ensued all over the Byzantine
Empire on the death of Basil II., was favourable to
the Bulgarian cause. Vladislav's widow and son
were suspected of intriguing against their masters,
and the latter was deprived of his sight Peter
Deljan, a son of the hapless Czar Gabriel, appeared
in 1040 in his father's country and was received with
acclamations as its ruler. The natives, ground down

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